History ArtisticLicenseHistory / WesternAnimation

* PlayedForLaughs and invoked in the ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoon'' short "Gramps." The titular Gramps tells his grandkids about how he stopped an alien invasion in 1939, and was personally asked by the President of the United States to do so. Said president is depicted in Gramps' story as a gorgeous redheaded woman. When the granddaughter points out America never had a woman president, she immediately shifts into Richard Nixon. Gramps begs his grandkids to let him keep this part of the story unchanged and they concede.

### In 1939, the American Army was well, crap, and the Army Air Force[[labelnote:*]]The Army Air Force became its own independent branch, the United States Air Force, in 1948.[[/labelnote]] was still using outdated aircraft, many of which were behind the rest of the world (and moreover, it was UsefulNotes/NaziGermany that had perhaps the most advanced in the world). So even if they wanted to attack at that time... they didn't have the means. The army at the time couldn't even afford enough guns and was using wooden replicas during live-fire drills, and they had no comparable tanks to face the German Panzer Divisions. And the Army Air Force, the P-40 and P-39, two planes which could compete (but not very well) against the Bf 109 were a year away from being deployed, thus they only had metal biplanes and the already obsolete P-35 and obsolescent P-36 Hawk. The notable exceptions being the US Navy and the small but cutting edge strategic bomber force.

* ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'': ''[[Recap/TimeSquadS01Ep21Nutorious Nutorius]]'' has George Washington Carver's non existent evil brother as the villain. While George really did have a brother, he died in infancy.

* ''WesternAnimtion/CloneHigh'': The theme song of the show claims that all the clones were taken from dug-up corpses of "famous guys and ladies". In real life, some figures, such as Mahatma Gandhi, were cremated, and Joan of Arc was famously burned at the stake, meaning there'd be no body to source DNA from, and chances are slim, if not non-existent, of said DNA remaining in the ashes, and that's assuming they ''weren't'' scattered at sea (some of Gandhi's ashes were buried in California, for instance). Meanwhile, many others have no graves to dig up, because nobody actually recorded where they were buried (such as Genghis Khan, whose grave was famously kept secret). That's also not getting into the fact that the real-life counterparts of some characters, such as Cleopatra, died too long ago to be feasibly cloned.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' where Beast Boy proclaims "Now I know how UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington felt when Napoleon beat him at Pearl Harbor". And at the beginning of the same episode, Beast Boy gives an account of the start of UsefulNotes/TheRevolutionaryWar, thinking that it started in 1492, and was caused because the colonists getting tired of only being allowed to eat english muffins and drink tea. Raven replies by wondering if he got all of that from a cereal box (he did).

** Seeking rhymes, Ulysses S. Grant is described as a man who'd "scream and rave and rant while drinking whiskey although risky 'cause he'd spill it on his pants," even though he was notorious for being TheQuietOne and his alcoholism was grossly exaggerated by revisionist history that attempted to paint him and other Union Generals in a bad light. To be slightly fair to the show, Grant's reputation amongst historians themselves and Presidential rankings wouldn't recover until the late 2010's when reexaminations of his ''actual'' character and forward thinking achievements would move him from the lower to more middle end of Presidential rankings. So while ''Animaniacs'' reflects what was thought of Grant at the time, if anything, Grant is now mainly criticized for being ''too loyal, humble and trusting'' to have run a Presidency where the people surrounding him were prone to corruption and willing to take advantage of him.

### In 1939, the American Army was well, crap, and its Air Force was still using outdated aircraft, many of which were behind the rest of the world (and moreover, it was UsefulNotes/NaziGermany that had perhaps the most advanced in the world). So even if they wanted to attack at that time... they didn't have the means. The army at the time couldn't even afford enough guns and was using wooden replicas during live-fire drills, and they had no comparable tanks to face the German Panzer Divisions. And the Army Air Force, the P-40 and P-39, two planes which could compete (but not very well) against the Bf 109 were a year away from being deployed, thus they only had metal biplanes and the already obsolete P-35 and obsolescent P-36 Hawk. The notable exceptions being the US Navy and the small but cutting edge strategic bomber force.

* Any and all witch burning scenes that claim they are from the Salem Witch Trials. Example of both used in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' and ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''.

* The popular notion is that Creator/WaltDisney's animated cartoon ''Ben and Me'' is what started the misconception of Creator/BenjaminFranklin's famous kite experiment, which has found its way into every adaptation of the event. Though he did come up with the idea, there's no clear evidence that Franklin ever performed it himself, and the ''Series/MythBusters'' clearly showed that if Franklin attempted the experiment the way it's popularly portrayed, he would have been fried to a crisp by the lightning bolt.

** Another from ''Family Guy'', this one from "The Big Bang Theory". It is shown that Leonardo da Vinci was Stewie's ancestor. However, Leonardo never married or had any by blood children, legitimate or otherwise. In fact, many speculate he was gay.

* From ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** There's the episode "Road to Germany" where Stewie and Brian travel back to 1939 to save a wayward Mort Goldman who accidentally went crap in Stewie's time machine. When learning that Nazi Germany was making a nuclear bomb, Brian attempts to pull an AuthorFilibuster when Stewie asked "Why doesn't America go and kick their asses?" which Brian replies "Probably because they didn't have any oil." This joke and much of the episode falls flat for several reasons:

** In "Much Apu About Nothing", when Homer is trying to teach Apu what he needs to become a US citizen:
--->'''Homer:''' Now we all know that the thirteen stripes are for good luck. But can you tell me why the American flag has exactly forty-seven stars?\\

** During his exam to become a citizen, Apu is asked a final question:
--->'''Examiner:''' What was the cause of the Civil War?\\

'''Apu:''' Actually, there were numerous causes. Aside from the obvious schism between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists, economic factors, both domestic and international played a significant--\\

'''Examiner:''' Just... just say slavery.\\

'''Apu:''' Actually, there were many factors. Apart from the obvious schism between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists, economic factors as well as--\\
'''Examiner:''' Slavery. Just say slavery.\\
'''Apu:''' Slavery it is, sir![[note]][[HistoryMarchesOn Which is actually now the more widely accepted explanation]], given the rebelling states ''themselves'' cited the dispute over slavery as their ''casus belli''.[[/note]]